Monday, September 5, 2011

Wslasher's Chaos Samurai

Back then...

Six Samurai dominated the meta since the release of STOR and successfully evaded being hammered by the March 2011 banlist. Lots of players shifted to playing the deck simply because of the dreaded "1st-turn-Shien + lots of backrow".

Now...

Six Samurai is quickly losing popularity though it is expected since it is the deck most hit by the new banlist. The consistency of having a 1st-turn-Shien and having the ability to safely set multiple backrows is now stripped away from the 6Sam players by having the main culprits - LSS Shien and Shien's Smoke Signal - getting limited and Heavy Storm now returning.

The 2011 PH Champion William "Wslasher" Sy is known as a die-hard fan of the archetype ever since the STON days. He piloted Sam in almost all the tournaments he played and looks like he's not stopping even though the deck is now considered less than Tier 1.

Comparing this new Sam build with the post-Sep Sams, we can see a lot of changes...

1. From a conservative 12-14 monster lineup, it is now 21.

Generically, we can call this deck as Chaos Sams. Aggression is now the key tactic of deck. Bringing out big beaters such as Zanji and Irou to take out both f/u and f/d monsters with Enishi bouncing potential synchro summons of the opponent. Lots of LV4 monsters give easy access to Rank 4 Xyz.

2. Ascetism of the Six Samurai x3

Its not like the use of Ascetism is new; however, from being used to simply summon Shien, it is now also used

as a way to simply swarm your opponent out of their LP and as a way to bring out Zanji with Kizan and Irou with Kageki or Enishi or vice-versa to provide a sort of "toolbox" for the deck.

3. Almost no traps and "Backs to the Wall (Ultimate Last Stand)"

The last time I played with him he used Double-Edge Sword Tech in order to synchro summon or to bring out more LV4s to attack and to Xyz rank 4s. The build he won with uses Backs to the Wall as new tech. It is a card that, at the cost of reducing your LP until 100, lets you summon Six samurai monsters as much as possible from your graveyard provided you do not summon 2 monsters of the same name. Frankly, I see it as a do-or-die card. Activate it, do your stuff; if you fail to kill your opponent, you pretty much lost the game.

In fairness to the card though, if gives you a lot of options and moves to make almost like Return from the Different Dimension. You can return monsters to synchro, Xyz, direct attack with, destroy cards, or just for the sake of summoning back your Shien and his lackeys. Remember, your monsters dont leave the field at the end phase unlike RftDD and DEST.

Pros:

= swarming and destructive power is incredibly high (esp. against f/d monsters, T_T my Rykos)

= has easy access to both Shien and Naturia Beast although not the same as the past format.

= Rank 4 Xyzs are easy to make. I can even see No.16 Shock Ruler being summoned by this deck.

= Enishi is trouble if the GY is loaded with Sams

= Can easily side into Dimensional Sams against other GY decks.

Cons:

= Simple 1800 and 2100 atk monsters are relatively easy to deal with.

= Creates tempo with swarms. No swarm = no pressure on opponent

= Shien wouldn't make that much of a threat if it doesn't protect powerful traps.

= No self-protection at all besides the lone Book and 2x Warnings

I dont even like the Warnings in this build. BTH is probably much better. Activating Backs to the Wall then drawing Warning next turn (if you get another turn) spells game over.

It is still the start of the format and we can't safely say that Six Samurai wont be much of a threat in the upcoming months. This attack-oriented side of Samurai is the polar opposite of what Six Samurai decks are about last format. With more tests with it by more ppl, we might see the the deck back again in top tables.

Next up! My deck. lol. I talked about how anxious I am to use Dhero and Junk Doppel tricks although here I wrote I'm currently playing Chaos Lightlord. One word can describe my deck: chopseuy! lol

5 comments:

Sort of expected this build. I had an idea like this at the release of the banlist but DD Crow took the place of Irou because I believed Irou is normally just a beatstick.

And also, I agree with you, BTH would be better than Solemn Warning, not because of Backs to the Wall, but because of Hyperions and Graphas running about. Players can use CotH on their Solemn Warning'd Hyperions and Solemn Warning does nothing to Grapha.